NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5

NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5

NVMe Base is a PCIe expansion board for Raspberry Pi 5. Simply install an M.2 NVMe SSD in 2230 or 2280 format and mount it underneath your Raspberry Pi 5 for a compact, fast, and elegant storage solution. It leaves the top fully free for HATs or heatsinks.

This expansion board is the perfect solution to turn your Pi 5 into, for example, a file server (NAS), a media center, a reverse proxy, a personal cloud, etc. In practice, it can be used in any project that benefits from large amounts of fast storage, especially workloads with high IOPS (input/output operations per second).

NVMe Base fully follows Raspberry Pi’s new “PIP” design guidelines, ensuring easy usability and compatibility with Raspberry Pi OS updates.

NVMe Base KIT for Raspberry Pi 5 includes:

• NVMe Base PCB with M.2 (M-Key) slot
• ‘PCIe Pipe’ flexible ribbon cable
• 4 rubber feet
• 1x M2 bolt and 2 nuts for SSD mounting
• 4x M2.5 7mm spacers for base mounting
• 8x short M2.5 screws for base mounting
• 4x long M2.5 screws for pass-through mounting with a HAT

Suggested drive compatibility
Pimoroni has successfully tested NVMe Base with the following M.2 NVMe SSDs. Please note this list is a guideline; testing was done on selected samples, so results may vary depending on manufacturer revisions.

– AData Legend 700
– AData Legend 800
– AData XPG SX8200 Pro
– Axe Memory Generic Drive
– Crucial P2 M.2
– Crucial P3 M.2
– Crucial P3 Plus M.2
– Inland PCIe NVMe SSD
– Kingston KC3000
– Kioxia Exceria NVMe SSD
– Kioxia Exceria G2 NVMe SSD
– Lexar NM620
– Lexar NM710
– Netac NV2000 NVMe SSD
– Netac NV3000 NVMe SSD
– Origin Inception TLC830 Pro NVMe
– Sabrent Rocket 4.0
– Sabrent Rocket Nano
– Samsung 980
– Samsung 980 Pro
– Team MP33
– Western Digital Black SN750 SE (Phison Controller)
– Western Digital Black SN770

“Avoid” list
Some issues were found during testing or reported.
– Kingston OM8SEP4256Q-A0
– Transcend 110Q (TS500GMTE110Q)
– WD Green/Blue/Red non nella lista sopra. Results are variable or non-functional due to SanDisk controller/firmware behavior. SN350 and SN570 in particular prevented Raspberry Pi 5 from booting in some cases.

Otherwise, most M.2 NVMe SSDs (not SATA!) should work correctly.

Getting started
– Video: Pimoroni NVMe Base installation on Raspberry Pi 5
Learn: Getting started with NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5

Firmware
To ensure a smooth start, make sure your Raspberry Pi OS is up to date and your Pi 5 firmware is updated to 2023-12-06 (December 6th 2023) or newer. This ensures full support for Raspberry Pi PCIe features without requiring manual configuration changes.

Raspberry Pi OS updates usually handle this automatically, but you can force it by:
– Open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T)
– Run sudo raspi-config and select ‘Latest’ under Advanced Options > Bootloader Version
– Run sudo rpi-eeprom-update on the terminal to check the current firmware version

PCIe Gen 3 mode
To enable experimental and unofficial PCIe Gen 3 mode, add the following line to the [all] section at the end of : /boot/firmware/config.txt of your Raspberry Pi like this:

[all]
dtparam=pciex1_gen=3

Save and reboot. Your drive is now ready to use!

How to format NVMe and boot from NVMe
If you want to boot from the NVMe drive, follow these additional steps:

1. Ensure firmware is up to date (as above)
2. Format the drive using Raspberry Pi Imager
3. With NVMe Base installed, boot Raspberry Pi 5 from a microSD card and run Raspberry Pi Imager from the start menu
4. Open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T)
5. Run: sudo raspi-config
6. Select NVMe/USB boot under Advanced Options > Boot Order
7. Reboot your Raspberry Pi 5

Notes

• Always power off your Raspberry Pi and disconnect power before installing or removing NVMe Base.
• NVMe Base provides a PCIe x1 connection intended for SSD use only. We cannot guarantee functionality with non-SSD devices.

Resources

• Dimension drawing
• 3D model (PNG / STEP)

Pimoroni name: NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5 – NVMe Base [PIM699]